Puthuppally: The family of Nimisha Priya, the Malayali nurse who is jailed in Yemen on murder charges, was among the thousands of people who arrived here to pay the last respect to former Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy. The family came to offer their respects to the Congress leader to mark their respect for the efforts he put in to get Nimisha released.

Union Minister of State for Foreign Affairs V Muraleedharan, while paying his tribute to Chandy, said that the former CM had even last week asked about the status of the case.

Nimisha's mother Prema Mary, husband Tomy Thomas and daughter Mishel Tomy Thomas arrived at Karottu Vallakkalil, the ancestral house of Chandy, at Puthuppally to pay their homage to the departed leader. They had carried a wreath in the name of Nimisha. "My family's respect to the dear leader," the wreath read.

Earlier in the day, the family had gone to Thirunakkara Maidan where the body of Chandy was kept for public viewing. Tomy told Onmanorama that they could not get near the body due to the heavy rush. He said Nimisha was yet to know about Chandy's demise.

"Oommen Chandy sir was of huge help to us. Last year, when we went to Thiruvananthapuram, he arrange a meeting with Minister Muraleedharan. He always followed up on the case. He had also connected us with businessman Yusuf Ali in a bid to help us," he said.

Tomy, an auto driver at Pyngottur near Thodupuzha, said he chose to travel to Kottayam with his daughter, who is ill, as he thought it was his duty.

He said Nimisha was still in jail because the victim's family was yet to arrive at a settlement with them.

Palakkad native Nimisha was a nurse in Yemen when she was convicted in 2020 for the murder of Yemeni national Talal Abdo Mahdi. Mahdi died in July 2017 allegedly of overdose after she injected him with sedatives to get her passport back from him.

According to Nimisha, Mahdi had also forged documents to show that she was married to him. She also said that Mahdi abused and tortured her.

The Yemeni prison authorities had earlier informed Nimisha's family that the murdered Talal's family was ready to negotiate for a payment of 50 million Yemeni rials (approximately Rs 1.5 crore) as compensation.